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On April 24 2015, the second single from Madonna’s Rebel Heart album, Ghosttown, was released as a 2-track single in Germany.

Digital Spy had this to say about the single:

If anyone will prove themselves indestructible come the apocalypse, then surely it will be the enduring might of Madonna that survives? According to her latest single Ghosttown, that’s exactly the case. “When it all falls, when it all falls down/ I’ll be your fire when the lights go out,” Madge promises her love on the haunting pop serenade, which gradually builds into a suitably theatrical finale ready for the Queen of Pop’s forthcoming world tour. It hears Madonna significantly more subdued and reflective compared to her handbag bangers of recent years, but by doing so it makes the biggest possible impact.

Like this:

On January 13 2015, Billboard revealed that Michael Keaton’ son, Sean Douglas, worked on Ghosttown, one of the songs to be featured on Madonna’s Rebel Heart album. The songwriter said that the track was written in three days, after Madonna had personally requested some studio time.

“Madonna liked ‘Talk Dirty,’ actually, and so they put me and [co-writers] Jason Evigan and Evan Bogart in with her and we had this great session. I was incredibly nervous for obvious reasons, but she showed up, was super personable and was ready to work. I basically checked it off my life bucket list.”

Douglas is a successful pop songwriter whose credits include Top 40 hits for Jason Derulo, Demi Lovato and Fifth Harmony, among many others.

Like this:

On March 29 2015, Madonna performed Ghosttown with Taylor Swift at the iHeartRadio Music Awards.

Here’s what Rolling Stone magazine had to say about the performance:

The 2015 iHeartRadio Music Awards promised there would be “unexpected collaborations” between the marquee artists attending the Los Angeles event, and the ceremony didn’t disappoint as Taylor Swift joined Madonna for an acoustic rendition of the Rebel Heart singer’s new single Ghosttown.

After the huge spectacles Madonna brought to her Grammy and (ill-fated) Brit Awards performances of Living for Love, the singer, armed with just a few stools, employed a minimal stage setup. Swift, on acoustic guitar, helped deliver a powerful, poignant rendition of the apocalyptic track before the black lace-wearing pair were joined by a large backing band for the single’s final minutes.

Following the performance, Madonna tweeted, “My new favorite guitar player! Thank you Taylor!”

On December 21 2014, Madonna hit #1 on iTunes in 36 countries around the world with the release of six songs from her forthcoming album, Rebel Heart. In virtually every country the songs were released, they held six of the ten slots on the iTunes Top 10 chart. In seven of those countries, she had multiple #1’s across various iTunes charts. The lead single Living for Love topped the iTunes chart in twenty counties.

News of the surprise drop came when Madonna posted a link on Instagram late the previous night announcing the release as “an early Christmas gift” to those who pre-ordered the album. Fans immediately went to iTunes and drove the songs to the top of iTunes charts around the globe. Instantaneously Rebel Heart exploded on social media with the album topping the Billboard Trending 140 chart.

The early release of six songs from Rebel Heart came on the heels of a series of leaks which forced Madonna and her team to quickly devise a new marketing plan for the album.

The video was shot in New York City at the Standard Hotel and was directed by long-time fan-favourite director, Jonas Åkerlund.

Jonas explained how the video evolved:

Madonna called me about Ghosttown. We hadn’t worked for a while because of different circumstances so when I heard all the songs Rebel Heart, I was very excited about Ghosttown. I connected to it creatively. And, yeah, we enjoyed working together. I was supposed to start something else right after and that got pushed and she asked me to do Bitch I’m Madonna. I saw it being so completely different from Ghosttown, something a little bit less serious, just fun and crazy.